Novels online

Chapter 962

As soon as he gave the order, he immediately turned the flagship around and sped towards the Dionysian fleet.

When the surrounding warships saw this, they quickly made the corresponding move. But for the Carthage warships that were further away, they first heard the bugle call to retreat, and soon changed to the bugle call to attack. These two completely opposite orders made them feel puzzled.

This was a newly formed fleet. Although most of the crew members were survivors of the previous Carthage fleet after the storm, it had, after all, been reorganized. The biggest problem was that despite Ademica's strong opposition, with the support of the Senate, Annobus still mixed the survivors of the previous Carthage fleet and the Iberian fleet together and assigned them to each new warship. In this way, all the warships were under the unified command of a naval commander, and there was no longer any independent Iberian fleet.

That was why when this new fleet hastily went into battle without going through sufficient run-ins, they hadn't developed a good sense of obedience to the new fleet commander (for the Iberian crew, Annobus was a stranger), so the usual patrolling and sailing didn't show. But in times of crisis, the problem was exposed: some warships were hesitant about whether or not to carry out this later order.

And just when this Carthage fleet was disunited and chaotic due to the two orders, the attack of the third Diónia fleet continued to show its power. The crow warship smashed open the outer shell of the circular formation like a hammer, followed by the fast three-decker oar warships that rushed in. Their narrow hulls shuttled quickly in the narrow internal space of the circular formation, as agile as swimming fish, but when they found an opportunity, they turned into ferocious sharks, twisting the oars of the enemy ships and smashing their hulls, making the already somewhat chaotic Carthage fleet even more chaotic …

At this point in the battle, some Carthage warships saw that the situation was not good and began to withdraw from the battlefield.

Speaking of which, the new Carthage fleet originally had 190 warships. After arriving in Sardinia, it merged with the 40 warships that originally belonged to Sardinia's Phoenician city-state, bringing the total number of warships to 230. After Annobus formulated this plan, he divided the new fleet almost equally. In order to ensure that the warships commanded by Ademica, who were responsible for the ambush in the distant sea, could resist the attack of the Diónia warships and create a complete chaotic battle, they could hold on until the fleet he personally led arrived and formed a two-pronged attack (because Annobus believed that if they arrived too early, the Dionysian fleet that had not yet entered the battle would likely realize that the situation was not good and escape early, resulting in a poor result), the 110 warships he assigned to Ademica were all Carthage warships, while the 40 weaker Phoenician warships were incorporated into his own fleet. He believed that in a situation where he had a great advantage, there was no need to worry about the combat power of the Phoenician warships.

However, the current situation was that Annobus's fleet was in a passive position. Faced with the fierce attack of the Diónia warships, several Phoenician warships chose to follow the flagship's previous order and retreated as if they did not hear the order to attack.

Their retreat also affected the fighting spirit of the nearby Phoenician warships, who all followed suit and retreated, making it difficult for the entire Carthage fleet to even maintain its defense, let alone attack.

After Annobus learned about the situation through the lookout, he was so angry that there was nothing he could do.

"Sir, let's retreat quickly. If we don't leave now, we won't be able to!" The captain urged anxiously. At this time, Diónia warships had appeared on both sides of the Carthage flagship. Because Annobus was personally supervising the battle, the situation at the front was slightly better. If things continued like this, the flagship would be cut off and be surrounded.

"… Let's retreat …" Annobus said dejectedly. He covered his face and sat on the deck, completely unable to face the fact that as a veteran admiral, he had first arranged the wrong formation in a hurry when they were suddenly attacked by the enemy. Then, he repeatedly changed his orders, causing the originally advantageous battle to turn into a rout …

… …

"The enemy is retreating! The enemy is retreating! Lookout shouted excitedly from the top of the mast.

Midolades did not look relaxed. He asked anxiously, "How far is the Carthage fleet behind us?

"Only about 300 meters away!"

"Order all warships not to stop. Speed up and move forward! Remember, do not stop! "Midolades shouted sternly.

"Captain, the flagship has raised three green flags!" shouted the lookout from the stern of a crow warship at the front of the fleet.

"What?! Green flags! " The captain furrowed his eyebrows. The navy's flag language for the green flag was "advance" (When the Dionic Navy first set up their flag language, green represented spring, the revival of all things, the thawing of the glaciers, and the rushing forward. On the other hand, the white flag represented retreat. The Dionic Navy did not have a flag language for surrender). This meant that they had to let go of the Carthaginian warship that was rushing past their bow in a panic. Although he was unwilling, he had to obey the order. The captain sighed helplessly and said, "Charge forward! Go straight ahead! Remove the crow drawbridge! "

All the warships of the third fleet were carrying out the same order, causing the entire fleet to speed up again. This forced the Annobus fleet to speed up and flee. In their panic, they even collided with each other in order to escape.

When these Carthage warships, which were moving slowly because of the collision, saw the Diónia warships approaching quickly, they were scared out of their wits. But a miracle happened. The Diónia warships brushed past them as if they did not see them and continued forward.

… …

Ademica was filled with regret.

Under Annobus's order, he led 110 warships to lie in ambush in the distant sea. His crew steered the warships up and down in the wind and waves, trembling as they waited for the Dionysian fleet to take the bait. In the end, after waiting for a long time, the merchant ship serving as the bait reported that the Dionysian fleet had chased them halfway and turned back.

Ademica was disappointed. He told the fleet to turn back and sent a clipper to investigate with a glimmer of hope.

In the end, the clipper reported that the Dionysian fleet had been intercepted by the fleet led by Annobus.

Ademica's disappointment immediately turned into excitement. He ordered the fleet to speed up.

Sure enough, it did not take long for them to see the Dionysian fleet in front of them. But at this time, he did not order the fleet to attack immediately. Instead, he ordered the fleet to slow down and get into formation.

He did this after some consideration. First, in the battle at Thadium a few months ago, the Iberian fleet that he personally led had been defeated by the Dionysian fleet. He had some understanding of the Dionysian fleet's combat power. At this time, the Dionysian fleet that had just started fighting with Annobus's fleet was completely capable of separating some of their warships to turn around and block his attack, causing greater losses to the fleet that he led.

Second, although he was now under Annobus's command, he was not convinced. He hoped that in this battle, the fleet under Annobus's command would suffer more losses while he suffered fewer losses. This would help increase his prestige in the new fleet and increase his right to speak.

Therefore, after Ademica ordered all the warships to spread out and form a two-column formation, he did not move and watched the development of the battle in front of him. At the same time, he was wary of the Dionysian fleet's possible escape.

But he never thought that the commander of the Dionysian fleet would be so decisive, ignoring his threat and ordering all the warships to participate in the attack.

He also didn't think that the fleet under Annobus's command would perform so poorly. The battle only lasted for about ten minutes, and they were already somewhat unable to hold on.

After Ademica roughly understood the situation of the battle in front of him through the lookout, he had no choice but to immediately give the order to attack.

It took the Ademica's fleet about seven to eight minutes to accelerate the warship from a standstill to a maximum speed, traversing a distance of nearly one and a half miles to reach the rear of the Daenian fleet. In order to allow the Annobus fleet to do their best to keep the enemy occupied, Ademica even ordered the buglers on the flagship to blow the bugles with all their might.

But all their efforts proved futile in the end. By the time they reached the battlefield, the Dionysian fleet had already passed through the Carthage formation and sailed at full speed into the distance. Only the damaged Carthage warships and the Carthage warships with half of their sailors were left scattered on the surface of the sea. Many Carthage sailors floated on the surface of the sea, calling for help loudly to the fleet. Instead, they became obstacles to the advance of the Ademica fleet.

Of course, not all the Diónia warships managed to escape in time. Seven or eight Diónia warships slowed down due to the damage to their hulls, or because they could not withdraw their infantry in time and had to wait for more time, or because enemy ships suddenly appeared in front of them in a panic and they could not avoid them and had to collide with them. As a result, they could not rush out quickly enough. In short, they did not manage to leave the battlefield and fell far behind the Dionysian fleet.

The warships of the Ademica fleet chased after them. When the Dionysian warships saw that they could not escape, they all turned around to fight. Even though they performed bravely, they were outnumbered, and the Carthaginians quickly won.

During this process, the Diónia Third Fleet did not turn around to rescue them. Instead, they sped up and left.

Looking at the Dionysian fleet that had almost disappeared in the distance, and then at the devastated battlefield around him, Ademica hesitated for a moment. Since it was impossible to catch up to the Dionysian fleet, he decided to rescue his compatriots first.

At the same time, he also sent a clipper forward to investigate the Dionysian fleet's movements. He also ordered the clipper to search for the Carthage warships that had escaped and let them return to the fleet.